Objective Analysis of Michigan State and the Big Ten Conference

One of the things I wanted to look at with the Adjusted Runs Above Average pitching totals (aRAA) was what teams lost the most talent.

What I did was take the sums from my last post and then subtracted out all of the pitchers that were seniors, red shirt seniors, or juniors that signed with a Major League team in 2010. This left me with a returning aRAA total for the pitching staffs.

Some caveats. Obviously, these being my adjusted totals, they adjust for batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and thus, assume that pitchers have little control over their BABIP’s in college baseball. This is a truism for pro baseball, but whether this actually occurs in college ball, I am not sure. It’s just as likely that it does not extend to college baseball as it does.

Also, these aren’t projections. While I’ve done my best to adjust for ‘luck’ by assigning a league-average BABIP to all of the pitchers, this does not account for growth. In college basketball, the typical player improves the most from his freshman to his sophomore season. This is something that I think probably extends to baseball, too, but I’m not positive. Until I can study how pitchers “age” so-to-speak these are not ‘projections.’

That means these are just what the title implies: the total aRAA accumulated by each team’s pitchers in 2010 once you subtract graduates and early-draftees. Read the rest of this entry »

Disclaimer:

This site is in no way affiliated with the Big Ten Conference, Michigan State University, or the NCAA. All opinions expressed are my own and my data is content either created myself or by others that I'm using with permission. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or inquiries, please email me at mikerogers04 [at] gmail [dot] com.